While Baldur's Gate III launched in full last year, it did come to Early Access a long time before that. Over the time the game spent in its more limited form, developer Larian managed to gather lots of user feedback and data to be able to ensure the full game was delivered in the best manner as possible, and clearly it worked.
Now, talking about the future, Larian's director publishing, Michael Douse, has stated that their next project will probably go down the same route and begin as an Early Access project.
Speaking with GameFile, Douse mentioned, "This is the only way to do it now, especially if you consider the fact that the whole point of this stuff is to create social resonance, to create a situation where you have a constant dialogue with the players."
He continued, "Our next - whatever the next thing will be - will also probably be in early access. That way you remove a lot of the prediction, too. When you release a game in AAA, whatever method, [if] you don't have early access, you're taking a huge bet on the fact that this is good and people like it. In early access, you find out very quickly. It helps you steer the massive ship."
Douse also added that if a developer doesn't know how to do Early Access that it shouldn't, but that it works wonders if you want to design a "really strong core gameplay loop" you can build around.
As for what Larian's next project will be, we know it won't be a Dungeons & Dragons game.